Local resources & activities
This page brings together local resources, groups, regular activities and events that home-educating families in and around Cambridgeshire have found useful.
It includes things you might attend regularly, dip into occasionally, or use as starting points when looking for ideas close to home.
Contents
Local resources & other useful links
- Cambridgeshire Libraries – Easy to forget them, but they’re fab!!
- Cambridgeshire Term Dates – Dates of when the local state schools are running, covering this academic year and the 2 after that.
- Parks – A fabulous site by 2 local HE boys, who have visited 25 different parks in Cambridgeshire and reviewed them. It includes all the info you need to get there, what facilities are available, photos & that all important mark out of 10. A fantastic site for anyone looking for a new local park to visit.
Local organisations that run groups and sessions specifically for home educated children
There are plenty of other groups and sessions going on all over the county, but these are just ones that are organised by the organisations themselves and not by volunteering HEors.
- Cambridge Science Centre – Central Cambridge – For the Cambridge Science Centre Home Education Facebook group click here
- Cambourne Fitness & Sports Centre – Cambourne – Term time only. Mixed ages.
- Giulietta M Spudich – Cambridge & Little Abington – A creative writing workshop for ages 9+.
”The atmosphere is fun and supportive. Young writers are welcome to bring their own stories, or create new ones. Parents/guardians welcome to join in. Creatively we flow together”.
A Wheel of the Year workshop, which is a day long workshop held every six weeks.
“Open to all ages with parents/guardians, these one day workshops follow the Celtic/Pre-Celtic wheel of the year festivals. Outdoors and nature-connected. We celebrate, create and learn”. - Regina Caeli UK – Bedford – Catholic centre for HEors that works on the Classical Education philosophy.
- Sacrewell Farm Home education Days – Wansford, Cambridgeshire – Activity days lead and conducted by the experts at Sacrewell. Pre-booking is required and the activities are done in small groups.
Local courses & activities
These are not HE specific and so are open to the general public.
- Cambridge Astronomical Association and the Cambridge Young Astronomers – Adult lecturers and using the telescopes from late autumn to early spring. Young Astronomer activities throughout the year. All organised by some really lovely people at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy.
- Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra – Really popular with musical (and less musical) HEors of all ages and abilities. Not the cheapest, but seen by those who do it as great value for money.
- Cambridge youth opera – Fantastic courses, aiming to bring opera to young people of all backgrounds, at minimal or no cost to the participants.
- Cambridgeshire Music
- Curwen Print
- Fitzwilliam Museum – Great courses (including the Arts Award) and single sessions for junior and senior school aged children. Minimal cost for truly inspired sessions.
- King’s Junior Voices – A Cambridge choir led by highly trained choir masters that is open to all 7-16 year olds (no audition) and is free for the under 12s and £35 a term for over 12s, but there are bursaries for those with strained – finances.
- National Youth Recorder Orchestras – A Cambridge day is organised annually, but also have days and longer courses in other parts of the UK. The standards are impressive. Never again will you think of the recorder as a second rate instrument.
- Saffron Centre for Young Musicians – Popular with many HEors.
- Stapleford Granary – Single day sessions, longer courses and numerous other events. A really great venue with a lovely vibe.
Cambridgeshire annual events
February · March · April · May · June · July/August · November
February
- Stapleford Granary – Single day sessions, longer courses and numerous other events. A really great venue with a lovely vibe.
March
- Cambridge Festival – Replacing the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, the Cambridge Festival generally runs from March to April. A hugely popular festival with a large number of really inspired free lectures and activities for all ages, both online and in ‘real life’. As with most things, you do have to look at their events list early and book as soon as booking opens if you want to get into the most popular lectures. Maths ones are always the first to go.
April
- Cambridge Literary Festival – Many fantastic speakers and books, but sadly, it one of the most expensive Cambridge festivals and costs a lot to see them, hence the audience is generally a sea of grey hair, white faces, families that attend private schools, and the odd HEor.
May
- Eurovision Song Contest – Clearly not something that is Cambridge specific, but should really be in everyone’s calendar. Hugely educational. As Zippy, George and Bungle would say, fill the whole world with a rainbow!!
June
- Cambridge Strawberry Fair – Been going forever, and despite over a decade here, I’ve still never been… one day…
July/August
- Cambridge Shakespeare Festival – The best thing about being middle class in Cambridge is that you can happily believe that the whole world has picnics in wonderful gardens while watching Shakespeare. It is a bubble I never want to get out of… unfortunately, the financial cost brings you back down to earth.
November
- Into film Festival – An annual event where school-aged children (and their HEing parents/teachers) can go to the cinema for free. It’s fantastic!!! My husband actually takes time off work for this one… to help you understand… I clearly couldn’t be trusted to successfully take the children to the cinema on my own.
The one downside, the school children you have to share an auditorium with – so noisy!
National organisations that run sessions specifically for HEed children
- British Museum, London – For ages 7-11 only.
- Home Educating Families Festival (HEFF) – https://www.facebook.com/HEfamiliesfestival/ – For those who truly embrace all things HE… and camping…
- Kentwell, Suffolk – Really fun day out, and you learn a lot to. Fab re-enactors. They make the whole thing an unforgettable experience.
- Jodrell Bank, Cheshire – The Discovery Centre run several HE days throughout the year, as well as events for families. You will, however, find yourself humming that Placebo song for the whole day.
- National Space Centre, Leicester – It’s got a massive planetarium!!! What more do you want?!?!
- UK Parliament, London – https://learning.parliament.uk/home-education/ – Ever wondered what an HEing dad looked like? Book on an HE trip here and you’ll see billions of them!
- Science Museum, London – For sessions for KS1 and 2, Wonderlab for KS2 and 3.
- Wallace collection, London – A fantastic collection that you often forget, going to one of the other bigger art galleries instead, but no excuse now as they have HE days.
Looking for more?
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